The bad news is that the House refused to even consider amendments that would strengthen the bill's weak privacy provisions, and it broadened the scope of the bill from cyber security to virtually any use of the Internet that could cause "physical or psychological harm" to minors or threaten the national security of the United States. As TechDirt's Leigh Beadon notes:

The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a "cyber security crime." Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all.

For Cnet's Declan McCullagh, the controversy over CISPA boils down to one word: "notwithstanding." Because the text of CISPA declares that its authority applies "notwithstanding any other provision of law," CISPA then trumps any other law that might protect your medical records, school transcripts, video rental histories, and the like.

It works kind of like this: Notwithstanding any laws prohibiting grand theft, I'm going to steal your car. Notwithstanding your right to physical safety, I'm going to punch you in the nose. Notwithstanding the U.S. Constitution, I'm going to drag you out of your bed in the middle of the night, put you in shackles, and change your forwarding address to Gitmo for the next 10 years.